Creating real care-givers
Wednesday, 19 May 2010
A recent seminar on 'private sector health' has once again pointed out that there is an acute shortage of manpower in the country's health sector, with only about one health worker -- nurse, paramedic, health technologist et al -- per 500 people, which is said to be roughly a fifth of the World Health Organisation's recommendations. Clearly, there is a great deal of scope for the private sector to bridge the gap. It can contribute to true human resource development if it comes forward. It could set up world class institutes to provide a comprehensive health education, capable of meeting the needs of people both at home and abroad. If the core concern behind such enterprises is dedicated to creating real care-givers rather than mere salespeople for the medical industry, then Bangladesh's health activists would have no quarrel.
One of the key demands of Bangladesh's health movement has been to institute a health rights commission and to incorporate it in the health policy document. Another important suggestion is to incorporate a comprehensive health science/ human biology course from classes one to eight in all schools --- on how the body works, what a balanced diet constitutes and what self care involves. It could certainly make a world of difference in the health of the people if primary health care skills were thus acquired -- reducing the burden of diseases of malnutrition, poor sanitation and other ailments of poverty and ignorance in just a few generations.
Suggestions for privatising the public health services wholesale, with the government retaining only a regulatory role, have not been welcomed by the pro-people activists. For while it would certainly please the medical industry and for those practitioners catering exclusively to the well-to-do, for the majority of the people here it would only mean further exclusion. The public health services currently in place may not be ideal, but considering the overwhelming numbers that have to be served against all odds, it is no mean feat. There is certainly a lot of room for improvement but the authorities would be taking a wrong turn if it relinquished its responsibilities towards the majority, whose right to essential services would be denied altogether if 'profit-only' private investors were given a blank cheque. Health services in a poor country should never be just another commodity on offer, accessible only to people who can pay.
People in Bangladesh suffer mostly from preventable diseases, related to poor nutrition, poor sanitation, unsafe water supply and pollution of the air, land and rivers. Old diseases and mysterious new ones have also been emerging, both natural and man-made according to some health activists. They claim that powerful pharmaceutical entities have even been inventing ailments, as it were, and designing drugs to cater to these supposed patients! These heartless trends must not be lost sight of. In order to protect the people's right to basic health needs, it is imperative that a commission to that effect is instituted. Developing the private health care sector should not mean that a comprehensive public health care service -- that is universally accessible and affordable -- cannot co-exist.
One of the key demands of Bangladesh's health movement has been to institute a health rights commission and to incorporate it in the health policy document. Another important suggestion is to incorporate a comprehensive health science/ human biology course from classes one to eight in all schools --- on how the body works, what a balanced diet constitutes and what self care involves. It could certainly make a world of difference in the health of the people if primary health care skills were thus acquired -- reducing the burden of diseases of malnutrition, poor sanitation and other ailments of poverty and ignorance in just a few generations.
Suggestions for privatising the public health services wholesale, with the government retaining only a regulatory role, have not been welcomed by the pro-people activists. For while it would certainly please the medical industry and for those practitioners catering exclusively to the well-to-do, for the majority of the people here it would only mean further exclusion. The public health services currently in place may not be ideal, but considering the overwhelming numbers that have to be served against all odds, it is no mean feat. There is certainly a lot of room for improvement but the authorities would be taking a wrong turn if it relinquished its responsibilities towards the majority, whose right to essential services would be denied altogether if 'profit-only' private investors were given a blank cheque. Health services in a poor country should never be just another commodity on offer, accessible only to people who can pay.
People in Bangladesh suffer mostly from preventable diseases, related to poor nutrition, poor sanitation, unsafe water supply and pollution of the air, land and rivers. Old diseases and mysterious new ones have also been emerging, both natural and man-made according to some health activists. They claim that powerful pharmaceutical entities have even been inventing ailments, as it were, and designing drugs to cater to these supposed patients! These heartless trends must not be lost sight of. In order to protect the people's right to basic health needs, it is imperative that a commission to that effect is instituted. Developing the private health care sector should not mean that a comprehensive public health care service -- that is universally accessible and affordable -- cannot co-exist.